Catch that? 2014 was a surprisingly Halo-ey year for video games, a fact made weirder by the year’s lack of a new, bonafide Halo release. (This week’s Master Chief Collection, an anthology of older Halo games with some “remastering” tweaks, impressed us in spite of being an obvious stopgap product.)

That doesn’t mean we’re getting out of 2014 without Master Chief showing us how it’s done. On December 29, Microsoft will slip the multiplayer beta test for Halo 5: Guardians into this year’s calendar. Wait, scratch that: “Slip” is too meek a word for the zippy, blistering combat to come.

After our hours-long session at the world's first public Halo 5: Guardians beta event—goofily described as “a beta of the beta”—we walked away believing that the developers at 343 Industries will close the year with a bold, defiant answer to the year’s ho-hum Halo-likes. Better put, this game, even in its early, rough state, slams the competition to the ground.

Rolling staaaart!

The Halo 5: Guardians beta, like other Halo multiplayer betas before it, is relatively modest. Unless developer 343 Industries plans some major surprises by the beta period’s end, it won’t include new weapons, new accessories, or any vehicles; the latter’s no small omission for video gaming’s original World of Tanks (er, World of Scorpions).

And if the rest of the beta’s arenas (seven in all) are anything like the three we shot through, expect a lot of tightly wound four-on-four combat, as opposed to the expansive, giant-team battles that put Halo on the map over a decade ago.

New arena named Empire.

A remake of Halo 2's Midship, now titled Truth.

We’re getting those clarifications out of the way because Halo 5 still managed to blow us away, and that’s all thanks to its completely overhauled maneuver system. What we’ve seen in Halo 5 multiplayer has been built for speed, close-quarters combat, and explosive moments. Those changes not only feel smooth and fluid, they also come by default for every player—as in, no fragmentation by way of classes, loadouts, or experience-driven unlocks.

To start, Halo 5 offers a slew of boost- and sprint-based maneuvers, and they’re rooted in an interesting good-news-bad-news change to the series. The good news: Players can now sprint as much as they want, meaning there’s no stamina meter, perk requirement, or other default impediment. The bad news: so long as you’re sprinting, your character’s defensive shield will not recharge.

That’s quite the conundrum, especially when sprinting is precisely what you’ll want to do when you’re in danger, and that means you’ll have to either retreat carefully or call on teammates to help in your most dire moments. Thankfully, all players have one other defensive maneuver by default: a dodge-burst. Tap B while holding any direction, and your fighter will quickly zip that way. It’s sort of like the Titans’ dodge move in Titanfall, but Halo 5’s fighters can use it in any direction and can toggle it in mid-air.

The mid-air game, in particular, received some very interesting changes. For starters, bringing up a gun’s scope after jumping allows players to hover while aiming. Hop off a ledge, hold down the left trigger, and create a mid-air sniping position. To nerf this, your altitude will dip ever-so-slightly as you hover, so you can’t hang permanently. And if you get shot while doing this, you’ll de-scope, so your hover will end. (Yes, de-scoping has returned after being yanked from Halo 4, and the sniper-hater in us is happy for it.)

See a few of Halo 5's biggest changes, including ground-pounds, in off-screen, 60 frames-per-second action.

There’s also the matter of the new ground-pound move, which we’re surprised more first-person shooting games haven’t tried before (one notable exception: the low-grav, butt-slam-happy moon of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel). In Halo 5, players can activate this when they’re a certain height above the ground. Once you click the right joystick down, the camera zooms out, and an aiming reticule appears below, which players can adjust while they hover above the battlefield. Let go of the joystick click, and you’ll slam to the earth, instantly killing anyone in the direct path and kicking up splash damage for anyone near enough.

Rounding these out are a few smaller changes, including a “clamber” that lets players pull themselves up when jumping at a ledge; a “charge,” which creates a super-powered melee bull rush once players have been sprinting for about 1.5 seconds uninterrupted; and a defensive slide, which players can do by hitting the crouch button mid-sprint.